Despite the destruction, Raqqa water plant back to supply more than 40 thousand families
Raqqa – North-Press Agency
Ahmad al-Hassan
Raqqa water plant supplies more than 40 thousand families of the city’s residents and the western neighborhoods, distributed inside the city to Fallujah district in the north and the al-Mashlab neighborhood in the east, and al-Hesewa in the west.
The drinking water plant is located south of the Euphrates River in the district of al-Kasrat, is one of the largest stations in the city that has been severely damaged during the battles that took place in the area between the Syrian democratic forces (SDF) and the Islamic State (ISIS), as a result, several pumps and basins of water filtration were out of service.
Since water means life, the population’s need was met as the competent committees carried out maintenance operations to bring the plant back to work.
Maintenance operations
Concerning maintenance operations procedures that the water plant went through, Jasem al-Khalaf, chairman of Raqqa Civil Council’s Water Establishment told North-Press that some parts of the plant were destroyed during the war, prompting them to activate the reserve stations “until we were able to repair the damage”.
Al-Khalaf added that the plant consists of 9 alternating pumping units in addition to the filtration tanks, which filter the water through sedimentation and sand for this purpose, noting that “several filters have been out of service, as we are working on its full rehabilitation”.
The mainline that supplies the city with water was affected during the battles.
“After the destruction of the old bridge, the main line of water supply was cut off, so we resorted to the reserve line passing underneath the bridge”.
Workers and beneficiaries
There’re currently 35 people employed in Raqqa water plant, functioning between administration and oversight of the operation of the pumps, the process of chlorine treatment, in addition to the internal maintenance department of the plant.
More than 40,000 residents of the city and the western neighborhoods benefit from Raqqa water plant, where they are distributed inside the city to the north in al-Fallujah, the al-Mashlab neighborhood in the east and the al-Hesewa to the west.
Backup stations
regarding the backup stations, al-Khalaf said that there are “two reserve stations, al-Maslakh and Beir al-Hasham, they operate if the main station stops for maintenance process”.
It’s worth mentioning that there are 21 drinking water stations in the city of Raqqa and its countryside, all of them have been fully activated.